Always curious

Homemade bread

2011-09-12T13:30:00.003+02:00

Although it looks complicated and expensive, preparation of bread in your own kitchen is cost effective and much healthier than the daily “school buying” baked goods.

Ingredients:

3 1 / 2 large cups of whole wheat flour (3 cups fro pastry + 1 / 2 cup to add when making bread)
1 / 2 dl oil
2.5 to 3 dl warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 / 2 packet of dry yeast

In a plastic bowl, put 3 cups of flour, salt and yeast and stir. Pour a little lukewarm water and the mix with hand mixer. Add oil, stir and finally add water to get a compact mixture that is neither too soft nor too hard.

Mix with hand blender at least 5 minutes until the dough starts to connect to and detached from the wall of the vessel. If necessary add a little flour.
Take the dough out on floured surface and knead (a minute or two) it with your hands. Return to pan, cover with a cloth and allow to rest, to rise (until doubled - at least 60 minutes).

When the pastry has grown, take it out and knead it again with your hands, and put it into the desired mold (I use oblong mold bread coated with oil)
Cover it again with a cloth and allow to warm to re-grow.
Heat the oven to 200 C (after 10 minutes then reduce to 180 C) and place the dough . Bake for 30 minutes (or until the bread is separated from the mold).

Hot bread wrapp in a cloth and leave to cool.

Homemade cookies 2

2011-07-03T08:46:00.003+02:00

These are extremely simple cookies, and they taste so good that they'll disappear before you'll be able to store them into box. The secret of a good and full flavor lies in the whole wheat flour that is used in stead of plain white flour.

Ingredients :
125 g butter
30 g vanilla sugar (in powder)
12 tablespoons whole wheat flour (integral flour)
2 tablespoons honey
6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped raisins
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
50 g chocolate

Whist the butter until is becomes foamy and then add vanilla sugar in powder and sugar. Mix until sugar dissolves. Add the honey, chopped walnuts, chopped raisins and flour (mix in flour spoon by spoon) and at the end mix in baking powder.
Form "pastry" sausage 5 cm in diameter and wrap it in a plastic foil. Leave it in a freezer for 20 minutes. After cooling, cut the pastry into 1/2 cm to 1 cm slices, and put them on a baking plane covered with baking paper.
Bake the cookies at 190 C for about 10 min.

Decorate cooled cookies with melted chocolate.

Spaghetti with broccoli

2011-03-24T10:24:00.004+01:00

Spaghetti with broccoli - simple, inexpensive, healthy, fast, accessible ... and you'll need following (serving for two persons):

250 g spaghetti
350 g Broccoli (1 medium broccoli)
salt and pepper to taste
1 / 2 dl olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 / 2 cords of parsley
chili peppers and Parmesan cheese (at will)

In a large pot of boiling water add a large spoon of salt and add spaghetti, and after a minute or two (depending on the length of cooking spaghetti), add washed and divided (in flowers) broccoli.

While spaghetti and broccoli are cooking, chop the garlic and parsley and prepare a larger pan with olive oil. Warm oil, add garlic, chili (at will), pepper, parsley and salt (if needed) - stir and let the garlic "smell" (garlic should not scorch). When the pasta and broccoli are cooked, drain and mix into the prepared sauce - Stir well and serve warm.

If you like, you can sprinkle it with grated Parmesan.

Bon appetite!

Quick kale pie

2011-02-19T08:08:00.004+01:00

Inspiration for the next recipe I found on the BBC-GoodFood, and eventually was knocked out much better than I expected.
The only thing you really must pay attention is the cooking vessel in which pie is prepared - do not bake in the pan with a removable bottom (as it stands in the original recipe) because it will leak liquid and oil on high tempertaure and before eye blinks, the kitchen will be full of smoke from the oven.

Ingredients:

300 g cale
6 sheets in a folder
150 g feta cheese
2 eggs
salt, pepper, oil
2 tablespoons yogurt

Boil kale in salted water, drain it and let it cool down a bit. Oil round baking pan and heat the oven to about 180 C. First, briefly blend kale with hand blender, mix 1 egg, feta cheese and a little salt and pepper - stir. Whisk one egg and 2 tablespoons yogurt. Put first crust into an oiled mold (baking Then put across on another sheet and also spread. Do the same with the next two sheets.

Pour mixture of kale and feta cheese in prepared four greased crusts. Cover with two rolls, brush more egg and yogurt and cover the end with rolls which protrude from the mold.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove and serve warm or cold

Diplomatic Cake

2011-02-10T09:05:00.007+01:00

Perfect dessert for Valentine's Day or any other sweet occasion...

Ingredients:
Material for 3 crust
12 egg whites
12 tablespoons
2 tablespoons flour
300g ground walnuts

First Cream
5 egg yolks
4 tablespoons flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1/2l milk
125g margarine

Second cream
7 egg yolks
7 tablespoons sugar
150g chocolate
125g margarine

For each crust whisk 4 egg whites, 4 tablespoons sugar, a little more than half a tablespoon of flour and 100g ground walnuts (mix egg whites and sugar with electric mixer and gently add flour and walnuts ). Bake each crust at 180 between 10 - 15 min.

First cream
Mix egg yolks with sugar and flour and cook it in a boiling milk - mix well to avoid creating lumps. When it cools down a bit, combine the mixture with 125g margarine - mix it with kitchen mixer.

Second cream Mix egg yolks with sugar and cook them on steam - at the end, add the chocolate (chopped into smaller pieces that are easier to dissolve). When filling has cooled, add 125g margarine.

Sort them in following order:
1. Crust
2. First (yellow) cream
3. Second (chocolate) cream

Finish it with chocolate glaze or whipped cream - cool it for a several hours in refrigerator and serve it cold

Homemade cookies

2011-02-06T10:08:00.005+01:00

Biscuits are the result of my (this time successful) experimentation - and for this "experiment"you will require following:

150 g margarine (or butter)
10 tablespoons sugar
1 package of vanilla sugar
1 whole egg
16 tablespoons of all proposed flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (as dark as possible)
1 / 2 package of baking powder

Frosting:
100 g dark chocolate
coconut flour
chopped roasted hazelnuts

Stir margarine to get foamy and add sugar and vanilla sugar. Mix with kitchen mixer until the sugar dissolves. Add whole egg and continue to mix. In a compact mixture add flour spoon by spoon, and add baking powder and cocoa - finish it with the flour.
Leave it in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Shape 3 cm (in diameter) balls, flatten them a bit, and sort them on baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes at 180 C.
When they cool down a bit, dip halfway into chocolate glaze, if desired, and the coconut flour or chopped roasted hazelnuts. Allow icing to harden overnight.

Kitchen helpers

2011-02-01T14:08:00.005+01:00

Lemon, salt, vinegar - these are just some of the foods that are found in every household, and their peculiarity is that in addition to cooking, can be used for cleaning. They are simple and always available, cheap and environmentally friendly.

Lemon juice

Lemon and lemon juice is not only a good cleaner, but also a pleasant smell, so here are a few handy tips:
- Cut a few slices of lemon and place in bowl with water, and all together in the microwave for 30 seconds to refresh the inside.
- Clean copper objects with lemon as follows – cut the lemon, soak it in salt and then rub copper surface.
- Cut the lemon in half and rub the surface of cutting boards. Rinse with cold water. This way you will clean the board and get rid of unpleasant smells.
- Clean kitchen tops with lemon juice or with lemon.

Salt

Salt is another kitchen cleaning supply that is used with equal success as a means for absorption, as well as for rubbing. Salt also kills various germs and preserves your food.
- If you spill food while cooking (at the stove), sprinkle it with salt. Salt will absorb the liquid, and you will get to clean the stains a lot easier when they cool.
- Frequently washing of cast iron pan washes "non-adhesive" layer, so it is sometimes enough to pour in a little bit of salt and shake, and then just wipe it. Wash with detergent every second time. Do it just before cooking so the food would not be stuck.
- Mix salt and vinegar to clean copper pans or rub salt on a piece of cloth, and clean egg stains Leftovers of food or water on sink can be also cleaned with salt.

Potatoes

Potatoes are commonly used for cleaning metal and metal ware. Rub rusty pan with a raw potato or retain water in which potatoes are cooked, dip in it silver or pottery items that has lost its shine.

Orecchiette with broccoli and anchovies

2011-01-30T20:00:00.000+01:00

For this recipe you shall need following:

300 g orecchiette pasta
1 medium broccoli
4 cloves garlic
½ laces parsley
½ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Several fillets of salted anchovies
½ teaspoon hot pepper (chili peppers, not pepper powder)
½ cup roasted breadcrumbs

Boil a pot of water and add 1 spoon of coarse sea salt. In boiling water add the orecchiette and after 1 minute, washed and cleaned broccoli (cut in flowers).

Heat olive oil in large frying pan or shallow bowl and add the chopped anchovies. When they fall apart, add chopped garlic, parsley and chili pepper. Mix the ingredients to permeate, and remove from heat( if orecchiette and broccoli are not yet cooked - garlic should not scorch).

When the pasta is cooked, drain it in a hurry and mix with prepared sauce (you do not have to drain it all because the liquid from cooking pasta contributes to a better taste of this dish).

In a pan fry the breadcrumbs and sprinkle them as desired in meat.

Bon appetit!

2011-01-25T18:00:00.000+01:00

Vinegar

Vinegar is used in whole of our household - from the kitchen and bathroom, to cleaning pets. Vinegar kills bacteria and neutralizes and eliminates odors.
For the following procedures use classic, alcohol vinegar.

A solution of vinegar cleans coffee maker, it removes lime deposits and stains from water and refresh the internal mechanism. Fill pot coffee maker with vinegar, and pour into the reservoir. Turn on the machine and let it "do" a half-cycle. Turn off and leave it 10 minutes. Switched on again and finish the cycle. Throw the vinegar, and then make two or three cycle with a clean, cold water. Repeat once a month, or whenever you notice that your machine performs poorly.

Vinegar effectively removes odors from your washing machine. Washing machines that fill up front are particularly susceptible to this problem. Add approximately 150 grams of vinegar during the washing cycle(especially suitable for liquid detergents). It will also eliminate the odors in your laundry.

It is known that the vinegar is used to clean the refrigerator. After you thaw and clean your refrigerator (or freezer), pour a little vinegar to a cloth or sponge and rub the inside of the refrigerator - you are on the way to eliminate all odors and bacteria.

Patches of water that remain on the glass or crystal can also be eliminated by using vinegar. Mix one cup of vinegar and three cups of hot water, and wash your glasses in that solution. Leave them to dry in air.

Clean your bin by using frozen solutions of water and vinegar (in equal parts, frozen in the ice tray), and for removing odors, pour one cup of vinegar in a bucket, and rinse with water.

In the same way you can clean and drain the sink, and if there's clogged drain, mix equal amounts of baking soda and vinegar, and pour the mixture into the sink. Mixture will make a foam and remove the blockage.

Vinegar is also used for cleaning the bathroom, especially for removal of scale and sticky spots. To purify clogged shower head, remove and immerse in a bowl with vinegar. Rinse in the morning and return back .

Do you happen to have an "accident" with your pet, you can again resort to a bottle of vinegar. Pour mixture of vinegar and water (in equal parts) on the stain of urine, which would then neutralize the smell, but it will also prevent your pet to come back to this "handy" toilet.

Penne rigate with kale

2011-01-24T19:02:00.001+01:00

Salted experiment that requires the following:
300 g penne rigate
300 g kale (small head, or 1/2 head of large one)
1 / 2 dl oil (sunflower oil or olive oil - at will)
1 medium onion
2 medium carrots
small bunch parsley
salt and pepper (at will)
1 / 2 dl white wine

Boil water for penne in a large pot - when it starts to boil, add half of hand (1 1 / 2 ladle) coarse salt. In boiling water add penne rigate and stir. After a minute of cooking add the shredded kale (cut into strips) . Cook until the pasta is cooked, and drain it all together. Set aside one cup of liquid from cooking the pasta.

At the same time while cooking penne rigate, in a deep skillet or shallow pot warm up the oil and add chopped onion. Sauté until the onions turn "yellow" and add carrots chopped into small cubes. Season with salt and pepper and fry for another minute or two, pour the wine and cover. When the wine has evaporated, pour a little bit of cooking liquid.

Sauté until the carrots are tender and at the end - add a little of liquid from cooking the pasta, stir in cooked penne and kale and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Stir well and serve warm. If desired, sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

Bon appetite!

Danube Waves

2011-01-23T21:45:00.011+01:00

Pastry:
3 eggs
15 tablespoons sugar
15 tablespoons oil
15 tablespoons flour
15 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 baking powder

Fruit topping:
1 compote of cherries (or peaches or apricots)
Juice of compote
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons rum

Cream:
5 dl milk
2 package of vanilla pudding
200 g margarine
200 g sugar

Frosting:
10 ounces chocolate
3 tablespoons sugar
6 grams of margarine

1. Pastry
Mix firm egg whites and gradually add sugar, oil, egg yolks, milk and flour mixed with flour for baking. Divide mixture into two parts and in one add cocoa. Yellow mixture pour into oiled and floured baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, remove from the oven, cover it with cherries from compote and pour the brown layer of dough. Bake the cake until the end.

2. Fruit topping
Half of compote mix with sugar and rum. Pour over roast hot cake. Allow the cake to cool.

3. Cream
Cook pudding in milk and cool. Add the butter foam made with powdered sugar. Coat chilled cream cake.

4. Frosting
Melt the chocolate, sugar and water to steam, add the margarine and pour over cake.

Serve the cake when it's cooled at least for 5 or 6 hours (the best thing is to leave it over the night in fridge).

Virtual health assistant

2009-05-12T12:21:00.000+02:00

I often seek for health advices on World Wide Web and I must admit I visited hundreds of sites, articles, news portals and e-books, but the most inspiring thoughts and tips I usually find on forums. Forums are perfect way to compare various points of view, thesis, or even arguments and at the end they help make a fair decision regarding certain issue.

I was really impressed when I ran on natural health forum because they offered me plenty of useful topics, sorted with order and means. It’s very easy to navigate through this forum and I’m sure that their topics from Women Health to MMS (Miracle Mineral Supplement) will not leave you disinterested at all, because I ended up scrolling through this forum much more then I planed to.

Hunting your privacy

2009-04-06T08:03:00.003+02:00

How many times it happened to you? You come home from work, exhausted and tired, you sit in your favorite chair trying to collect yourself and continue housework, and then suddenly a phone rings, you jump up from that chair thinking it’s something important, or maybe a friend you didn’t hear for a year or two is calling, but no.

When you pick up your phone, ear phone brings you mechanic voice offering you “brand new product” on special action, just for you… We are all familiar with this kind of abuse. Luckily, now you have the opportunity to report this kind of harassment to CallHunter - special service offering you the ability to report all received calls. This is something very valuable for all of you who are concerned about your privacy, and privacy is one of the most important bases of one’s freedom.

Imperatives and myths

2009-03-30T14:21:00.004+02:00

I don’t need to say that most of today’s modern population craves for being fit and with proper “sizes”. Of course, it’s not always about the looks – normal body weight has something to do with health as well.

When I turn back on myself, I must admit that I spent half of my life being on some kind of diet. First, it was my puberty, when I was teenager and we all know how delicate can be that period in life. After years of trying to stay fit and healthy, it was time to have a baby, and again, I found myself in similar “fights”. I can’t say that I have weight problem, but neglecting this part of life can very easy cause serious problems and misery.

Diets are often connected with deceptions and wrong advices like “starving can help you lose your weight” or “Don’t eat food with fat”, so I did a quick search, and here are few advice that could, hopefully, make your dieting easier.

1. Don’t starve yourself – you will only lose your body musculature and there’s nothing healthy in that.

2. Carbohydrates are bad for your body – well, white sugar or various sweets won’t do you any good, but you must know that your body needs about 40 % of carbohydrates a day (when you count your daily needs), so food like bread, rice or any other integral grain product must be on your daily menu.

3. If you want to lose weight, eliminate all fatties – I’m sure when someone discovers that our body can work without omega 3 fatty, then this could be of use, and since this time is far away from us, consuming food rich with omega 3 fatty is still an imperative.

4. Too much water is no good for you – our body is about 70% water, so is it logical that drinking water can harm our body.

5. Always try to split your meals in little portion and eat it several times a day, that way you’ll keep your stomach working a little and you won’t shock your body with huge amounts of energy which are always “accumulated” in wrong places.

These are just few lines regarding this subject. Of course, it’s important that you don’t become slave to all that artificial commercial looks because real beauty comes from inside, and when you combine it with natural way of life, success is here, for sure, and it will last much longer then all that “lose 10 pounds in 5 days” promises.

Never enough of "going green"

2009-03-10T08:20:00.004+01:00

Going green is one of the most common words lately, maybe even boring to someone, but I'm afraid that is one of the way that will surely help us in prevail our Planet.

Surfing our virtual world, every day we run on positive and green enthusiast that contribute with their work to "Green mission".

One of those "positive fighters" are definitely LayZgreenPeople.com - website with great content and original approach. So, help our planet and visit LayZgreenPeople.com - you won't be sorry!

While we wait for colorful spring...

2009-03-09T13:17:00.006+01:00

As much as we are looking forward to spring, we are still faced with the certain “grayness” on our markets and shops – when you look at a shelf in grocery or a supermarket, you’ll notice that there is no too much choice in offered fruit and vegetables.

Bananas, apples and oranges, OR onion, potatoes and carrots are the food you are most likely to find that fit in this year period (I will not count tomatoes which look like they were made of plastic or similar food).

Well, it’s no reason to feel bad because of the poverty of choice, think positive and you’ll be able to find the benefits of simplicity in these caterers.

Onion is proven to be a great helper in decreasing high blood sugar level, high cholesterol level and high blood pressure. If you consume onions regularly, you’ll not only help your cardio vascular system, but you’ll reduce the risk of developing colon cancer, because of the effect of its’ substance called flavonoid for which it has been proven to stop the growth of cancer cells.

There’s no doubt that potatoes are the one of the most popular food, and it is not imaginable to prepare a wholesome meal without them. Unfortunately, we mostly prepare potatoes in the unhealthiest way like chips or fries. Potatoes are worth of exploring new recipes because they’ll give you in return many quality features like a decent amount of vitamin C, vitamin B, dietary fibers, potassium, copper and various phytonutrients which act like antioxidants.

Carrots – for someone maybe boring, but for those who think the world of carrots, let me tell you that they are great source for pro-vitamin A carotenes. Antioxidant compounds in carrots protect us from cardiovascular diseases and really help in achieving good vision (especially night vision). Certain studies suggested that a carrot a day, in our every day diet, can considerable cut down the risk of lung cancer. Carrots can also enter the company of food that reduces the high blood sugar level, so joined with onions, they can make perfect and simple dish in future days, or until there will be more natural colors in our super markets and groceries.

Mediterranean gold

2009-01-27T13:36:00.003+01:00

One of many fashionable expressions lately has definitely been Mediterranean diet. I live in of Mediterranean countries, Croatia, and I’m really happy and proud to see that sometimes we can really use fashion for a good cause, and that is our health.

Many studies and researches have proven benefits of Mediterranean diet, and the last one on the list is dedicated to EU parliament and their wish to put this diet to UNESCO list of World cultural heritage.

Mediterranean diet helps in prevent of cardio vascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer diseases, and it even mollifies symptoms of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

This includes healthy and natural food and plenty of vegetables and fruit. Main ground of that diet is extra virgin olive oil and food prepared with and on olive oil.

We are offered with hundreds of olive oil brands and manufactures, so we must be very careful when we buy it, because labels don’t always speak the truth.

How can you recognize good and quality olive oil?

Extra virgin olive oil is product of first pressure procedure and it has the level of free fatty acid bellow 0.8 %; percentage above that value refers to virgin olive oil, or just olive oil (percentage above 2 %). You must pay attention to color, taste and smell of oil.

Color of oil is ought to be between golden and dark green, it must be transparent and it taste must not be sour.

But these are only the basics, quality of olive oil depends on its’ storage conditions, producing procedures, and we must be careful with expiry date.

Lower temperature can affect the structure of extra virgin olive oil because some part of it coagulates – so that’s one of the confident proofs it is really extra virgin olive oil.

Grow organic vegetables - fashion or our need?

2009-01-20T08:54:00.007+01:00

Words like organic, bio, ecological, green or eco have become rather fashionable nowadays, but can we define clear line between pure swagger with new eco fashion and real, natural and ecological aware way of life?

Definition of organic (eco) agriculture is very clear - you grow cultures towards certain standards, you don't use conventional pesticides and artificial fertilizers. Those cultures must not be polluted with any kind of poison or waste, and they must ge GMO free. They must be cultivated in natural, defined conditions, and oif there is a certain amount of inorganic compounds in them , that percentage must be very low and it must me shown on this culture, or product (this value varies from country to country).

We saw that the definition of organic is very simple, but what about all the products we find in our supermarkets that are tagged with "eco friendly", "100% natural" or " organic" stickers and commercials? Can we trust those tags?

Scientists proved that organically grown cultures (vegetables and fruit) is indeed healthier then those grown in conventional way, but I'm not sure that all that lies on our market shelves marked as "100% organic" is always true.

Those products are very often overrated and it's really a bit ilogical that one pound of "eco grown" tomatoes costs twice times as s pound of "conventionally" grown tomatoes, and to produce this, "conventional" tomatoes you need far more means because you use all that fertilizers, pesticides and similar supplements. I've succeeded in growing my own, "eco" tomato and the only expense I've had was the seeds I bought (which was declared as "non" treated, I hope it was GMO free as well). Everything else I found in nature (therapeutic herbs which I used for fertilizers and protection), and, of course, my time - but you use your time in any way of agriculture.

If you would to grow organic potato and conventional potato, which French fries would be healthier?

I don't think we can talk about totally healthy "eco" potato and totally unhealthy "conventional" potato because it is far more dangerous to eat a pound of "eco" French-fried potatoes, then to eat a pound of steam boiled "conventional" potatoes.

Don't trust to all that is written on one product label, paper can suffer anything - it's more important to pay attention to fair balance and diet, even if it means to eat conventional food sometimes.

Acne, spots, pimples, blisters...

2009-01-13T11:44:00.006+01:00

Acne, spots, pimples or blisters - it isn’t matter how we call them, but they are the same and boring unpleasant plugging of pores on our skin face or upper part of chest and back (shoulders). Many “puberties” suffered acne problems and it surely made them feel miserable in that, very sensible period of their life.

Today, we have a possibility to choose (some natural and some not so natural) products like skin tonics, cleaning lotions, or creams to stop acnes, but we are not always in situations where we can buy those products or sometimes we can’t afford them, so we are left with alternative ways to fight pimples.

The first rule we must obey is not to squeeze pimples because squeezing can damage our skin tissue.

We must pay attention on what we put in our mouth and we must avoid very spicy, salted and fat food, and we need to reduce our chocolate, sweets and alcohol to the minimum level. It is highly recommend eating fresh vegetables and fruits, and especially onions. One of the best spices that helps in fighting acne is thyme.

You can clear pimples with fresh bakers yeast or beer yeast. There are some sources which recommend direct consummation of yeast (three times a days, once a week), and, besides consummation, you can use yeast face masks - crumble one tablespoon of beer yeast and warm it up on steam, cover your face with melted yeast three times a day (wash it off after 10 do 20 minutes), along with mask, it is recommended to drink fresh carrot juice. Results are visible after 7 days? – I haven’t tried so I’ll end it up with this question mark.

Besides yeast, you can use therapeutic herbs and its’ remedies to fight acnes.

Prepare 1 liter of tea made of wild pansy – boil 4 tablespoons of wild pansy, strain it after 10 minutes. Drink half of it, and other half you can use for compress.

Take 4 tablespoons of chopped fresh thistle leaves and roots and boil it with one liter of water, strain it and drink three cups a day. You can prepare tea made of nettles or dandelion on the same way.

You can mix chamomile, sage, milfoil, calendula, onion, garlic, nettles, linden and mint, also take 4 tablespoons of that mixture and boil it with 1 liter of water, drink it few times a day. Make a steam bath for you face with chamomile tea – cover your face under that tea and “steam” yourself until chamomile cools off.

Vegetables can also provide a good, alternating cure for spots. Bit up few leaves of savoy (kale) and keep them on your face for a half an hour. Take few dark green leaves of lettuce and cook it with whey (I haven’t tried it, it sounds maybe a bit strange), keep it on your face for about twenty minutes. Wash it off with warm water.

Scrub horse radish and put it in a jar. Cover it with fruit vinegar and leave it to rest for 10 days. Put vinegar that was made of that horse radish on spots with a cotton cushions, then wash it off with warm water after ten minutes.

These are only alternative solutions. Unfortunately, there isn’t 100 % effectively remedies in fight against acnes. You must take in consideration your own heritage, which means bigger or smaller tendency towards spots. It’s recommended to spend as much as it is possible time on fresh air, and especially it is useful to take sunbathes and spend time on the sea side.

I hope this post would offer few more alternatives in acne fighting since this is something that doesn’t stop when you turn up 19 years; sometimes it continues to annoy you until much more serious age.

Thyme - Thymus vulgaris

2009-01-08T14:33:00.020+01:00

It's rather cold these days, everything is frozen, and some of it that has been left, is covered with snow.

Among those frozen unfortunates is my thyme plant. Whole summer we’ve been enjoying its’ sweet and pleasant odor, and it was a real treat to enrich herbal tea with few leaves of fresh thyme.

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is a smaller, bushy plant which doesn’t exceed 10 inches. She likes sunny and dry places, near paths or fencings, and it can grow even on rocks.

Thyme blooms through whole summer (from June to October) and it’s adorned with beautiful and strong smell. You can pick wholesome plant (without wooden parts) and dry it in a cool, clear place, on the attic, for example. When you dry it, it is recommended to use wooden or glass sticks instead of your bare hands.

Thyme has a very wide usage in popular medicine. You can use for clearing respiratory system; it smoothens coughing, hoping cough and nerves. Thyme tea mixed with honey helps women give birth, and it has positive effect on anemia, kidney diseases, women diseases and rheumatic troubles.

If you dip thyme into olive oil or brandy, it can act very favorable on bacterial lung diseases or intestinal diseases.

Thyme increases physical strength of patients, and in some older times, thyme baths were used for helping pulingly children.

Here’s a simple recipe for thyme tea that helps in curing problems with coughing, bronchitis, insomnia, lung catarrh, migraine, asthma, flatulence, stomach ulcer and diarrhea:

Put 1 spoon of thyme to 3 to 4 dl of boiling water, leave it covered for about 15 minutes, and then strain it and sweeten it with honey. Add a little bit of lemon juice as well.

My personal recipe for wonderful herbal tea is as follows:

Take one spoon of a mixture of thyme, mint, calendula, fennel, sage and a little bit of fig tree leaves and add to 3 dl of boiling water, leave it covered for 5 minutes, filtrate it and put in some honey. It’s great prevention for these freezing days.

Party is over!

2009-01-04T19:33:00.009+01:00

Holidays are long gone and all that we have right now is a slight hangover, minus on our credit cards and, at least, 5 pounds more – or not?
Did you manage to stay calm during this “merry season” and control yourself in enormous spending and overeating?
I must confess that I had to fight very strong with “generous” side and stayed in limits of normal “consumerism behavior”, but from what I’ve seen from the supermarkets I visited and from the news, I don’t think everyone can say that.

They are all predicting very hard 2009 with global finance crisis, so I hope that bills that’ll arrive in January will not contribute to this modern fashion of depression.
What are these lines “upstairs” have to do with whole sound of my blog? Well, credit cards aren’t connected in any way with herbal remedies or natural cures, but they can very well add to our (un)healthy way of life. If we spend too much time worrying about finance (or we spend too much) we’ll eventually find ourselves in a situation where we’ll need those herbal remedies or cures to help us overcome health problems that came from our stressing way of life.
I truly hope that New 2009 will only bring peace and financial independence to all of us, little people, who struggle our every day life and that herbs, natural remedies and all other cures will only have an amusement role in our life.
Once again – Happy New Year!

Privacy Policy

2009-01-01T12:00:00.000+01:00

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Coenzyme Q10

2008-12-23T10:53:00.003+01:00

Lately, my attention was caught with one, particular TV commercial on National Croatian TV which advertises milk (not body milk, but consuming milk) with coenzyme Q10 (also known as ubiquinone or ubidecarenone, ref. Wikipedia).
We are all familiar with face or body creams with Q10, or other cosmetic products, but this is alimentary product in which was, in some certain way, inserted Q10.

So, what are coenzymes and why do we need them?
Coenzymes are little, non-protein materials which transfer chemical substances between enzymes. Coenzyme Q10 is compound similar to vitamins which is oil soluble, and it is most common in mitochondrial. Q10 is responsible for producing 95% energy for our body. With this information, it’s not hard to conclude that organs which require most energy (like lever or heart) have the highest concentration of Q10.

Q10 is very strong antioxidant, so that’s why it is essential for our body. Various researches have proven that our body produces enough of Q10 until we enter thirties (if we speak about healthy person), and after thirty amount of Q10 is decreasing, so it is recommended to take remedies that involve Q10.

I don’t want to suggest any kind of artificial food product or cosmetic product with Q10, I’d rather make a list of natural Q10 resources, and these resources are:

- sesame oil (sesame seeds oil)
- peanut oil
- soy bean oil
- canola oil
- pork and beef bowels (heart)
- chicken leg
- mackerel and herring fresh bowels (heart)

Deep frying of these caterers can decrease the amount of Q10 in them for almost 30% so it is recommended to pay attention on a way of taking Q10 in our body.

Knock, knock...

2008-12-04T12:29:00.004+01:00

- Knock, knock – said „Christmas time“ and before you know it, you won 10 extra pounds.

It’s not my intention to break Christmas spirit, but I think I’m speaking about well known situation here.

It’s not hard to imagine it – the best time of year, family gathered around beautiful Christmas table, Christmas tree lamps are sparkling, children are playing around and opening gifts and you are proud of yourself because you succeeded to finish dinner in time, roast didn’t burn, and all your guests are in good spirit, but when you set on your chair to finally have this desirable meal, you realized that you used wrong machine program because it seems that your pants (or skirt) got accidentally shrink while washing.

December is very dangerous month when it comes to mixing machine washing programs. It tricks you so easily and before you open your eyes you find yourself caught with 5 or 10 additional and unwanted pounds.
Of course, they didn’t find their way to your belly over night, but if you count how many times you’ve tried new crème for cake, or is that salad dressing spicy enough, you’ll realized that you’ve been deceived by sweets and little treats before you even start to enjoy all Christmas culinary festivals.

It seems so hard to stay away from all crème leftovers, but don’t be sorry to throw them away – leftovers make more damage to your body in a long turn, then your remorse after few spoons of spilled ice cream or filling.

I do feel guilty when I must to throw away any kind of food, and my heart is braking because of it, but, unfortunately, I don’t have the opportunity to give this food away. On the other hand – I’m not a trash can! I can’t put in my mouth everything that stays “uneaten” just because world hunger is one of the biggest problems today.

How to stop this enchanted circle? Don’t prepare as much food as you used to prepare it.

You’ll have more time to spend it with your family, and that is what is Christmas all about.

Is it really that healthy and dark?!

2008-11-20T13:02:00.012+01:00

We are all aware of the well known fact that dark chocolate is indeed healthy, and it benefits the state of our cardiovascular system , it lowers our blood pressure and it's full of antioxidants - and when we honestly think about it, we must ask ourselves how many times we used this excuse to eat chocolate more then we should have.

Medical journals (like The Lancet) published proofs that will surely lower us to the ground from our sweet, chocolate cloud.

Dark chocolate is indeed healthy and good and it mainly benefits our health because of one antioxidant called Flavanol. Flavanol is also the reason why is dark chocolate so bitter. To get rid off unwanted bitterness, chocolate and confectionery makers very often take out those flavanols and in this way they take away all the benefits chocolate can give us. The worst thing about it is the fact that chocolate labels often don't show the information whether the flavanols are in the chocolate ingredients or not.

These are mostly good news for all dark chocolate lovers. Unfortunately, we can't say the same thing for regular milk chocolate or white chocolate. It's very rare for those two beauties to be left with flavanols - but they are still rich with fat, sugar and calories, which can be very "helpful" in getting some of that extra pounds (against which we have been fighting past several months).

This is not the end - seemingly black chocolate can be a great imposture. When making chocolate, manufactures often mix special additives which dim natural cocoa mass, while bitter flavanols have been devoid.

So, what should we do? Must we stop eating chocolate?

I don't think so - but, we can help ourselves in a very simple way. During our next chocolate shopping take a note of label about the product and try to buy a chocolate that has the least additives as possible and with more cocoa parts in it.

Chelidonium maius

2008-11-16T22:34:00.002+01:00

Hectic way of life often makes us forget all the benefits we can get from nature that surround us. Most of the time we think of them to be just plain weeds which disturb gracefully organized environment.

One of these weeds is definitely greater celandine also known as tetterwort, (Chelidonium maius).

Chelidonium (family Papaveraceae) can grow from 30 cm to 80 cm. It’s mostly found in areas which are not farmed or in ruins, besides fences and paths, and its’ main characteristic is yellow orange juice which starts to leak if you squeeze this plant.

Chelidonium is very contradictor herb because it’s very therapeutic and poison in the same time.

In some past times, Chelidonium was used as cure for leukemia (combined with nettle and elder sprouts) because it cleans blood and helps in generating blood.

Greater celandine is diuretic and purgative aid (lightens your digestion) and it is recommended to people suffering from rheumatic and gout. It helps with problems with asthma, insomnia, chronic bronchitis and convulsion in some parts of body.

Chelidonium is very successful in treating kidney disease, lever diseases and gall diseases (it dissolves gall stones).

It improves eyesight and various eye illnesses. Warm compress made of green part of Chelidonium helps with stomach ache and sexual organs, and we put the herb directly on our stomach it will chase away worms.

Chelidonium is mostly recommended for outer usage because it helps with skin cancer (it is highly recommended in treating skin cancer) diseases, callus, skin tags and eczema.

The most common way to use Chelidonium is to squeeze its’ fresh juice and use it directly on your skin.

You must be very careful with Chelidonium because it can be very poisoned if you take this herb without precaution.

Despite to some of its’ bad characteristics, don’t miss this unique and very useful herb – there are not much information about it, but I’ll try to add some benefits for it in future post because I noticed Chelidonium around me in many different places, all I need to do now is to find the time and pick it up and trying its’ curative and therapeutic features on me.

Uncertian number

2008-11-10T11:12:00.005+01:00

That's the number of refugees around the world. Due to world's hectic situation number of refugees is changing with every new day.
It's makes me sad and I really feel totally useless when I see so many people displaced from their homes.
What can I share with the rest of the world? When I read "Bloggers Unite for Refugees" on blogcatalog, it reminded on time when my country was in terrible war. It was in 1990-ties and I was a teenager in that time.
I remember the 18th of November - the day when Croatian town Vukovar lost its' freedom after several months of struggles and fighting for liberty. It was surrounded and after their defense broke down thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and find another, uncertain tomorrow. Many people ended in Serbian concentration camps.
It's awful part of Balkan history and I don't want to remind myself again on these sad pictures, but I'll never forget a picture of young girl (Željka Jurić) with tears in her eyes holding her little doll and walking down destructed Vukovar's street towards buses and boats which were waiting refuges.

Rosemary - Rosmarinus Officinalis

2008-10-23T14:15:00.007+02:00

I know summer is long gone, but I still can’t forget one of my main “summer amusements” – taking pictures, taking pictures, taking pictures…

All by itself, photographing isn’t strange at all, but if you consider that 20% of all my photos were rosemary plants (bush, flowers, leaves…), then it’s worth mentioning.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is indeed well known plant, so I don’t need to add additional description. In some “older times” rosemaris were inevitable decor on wedding ceremonies (this custom goes back to old England where it was symbol of fidelity) and that’s why I’m really happy to see that “retro is in” again.

Rosemary is Mediterranean plant which expanded around the world. It’s mainly cultivated in coastal and warm areas because it’s very sensible on cold and winter, but luckily, it can grow in pots as well, so us, living in colder areas can also enjoy the benefits of rosemary.

It is almost impossible to prepare fish barbecue without using rosemary twigs for smearing fish with olive oil, for example, or make kebabs of rosemary sticks, but you should also consider rosemary’s high energetic and nutritive value and curative properties as well.

Rosemary, both fresh and dry, is great source for minerals like iron, manganese, calcium, copper and magnesium and it’s full of vitamins (A, B, C…), but the crown of all is its’ therapeutic feature.

Scientists on Cincinnati Universe confirmed old belief – rosemary stimulates memory because it induces circulation and blood flow to brain. Today’s studies are also showing that rosemary oil can help in skin cancer treatment because it stops growth of tumor cells.

There are even some researches that are trying to prove that rosemary oil can stop developing of lung cancer and colon cancer.

There are numerous benefits that rosemary has, and I’ll give you just a few of them:

- rosemary anticipates blood circulation and it purifies blood
- rosemary increases low blood pressure
- compresses of rosemary tea act favorably on sprains, wrenches, bruises and edemas.
- rosemary tea or rosemary dipped in brandy can reduce hair spill
- rosemary speeds up digestion and stomach functioning
- it stimulates liver function
- rosemary baths heal ulcers and skin rashes.

Rosemary is inevitable spicy in kitchen and it is really easy to prepare oil or vinegar aromatized with rosemary. Simply take one or two rosemary twigs (and you can add garlic, thyme, black pepper – what ever you prefer), put it in glass jar, suffuse it with oil or vinegar, and in a few days you’ll have ideal spice for various dishes or salads.

"The day of six Billion"

2008-10-12T09:40:00.004+02:00

I was wondering around virtual sea and I ran on information that the 12th October is "the day of six billion" - on that day United Nation decided that it would be approximate day when our world's population reaches six billion. It's nothing very special about all that, but when I saw that this six billionth person was from Sarajevo, Bosnia, it returned me to 1987 - the year which was very important for Zagreb (Croatian capital).
In 1987, 14th Universiade (it is International sport event organized for university athletes) took place in Zagreb, and its' motto was "World of youth for world of peace". I guess that was the reason why they proclaimed the five billionth person on this planet from Zagreb - it was Matej Gašper (born in July, 11th). This little note shows indeed big relation between Croatia and Bosnia - both are ex Yugoslav countries, both had horrible war and both have "n" billionth inhabitant...

12th October is the date when Christopher Columbus reached the shore of San Salvador in Bahamas, although he thought that he had found the way to East Asia.

Well, when I speak about 12th October, I couldn't miss the world of music - famous Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti was born on that day, and well known rock n' roll pioneer Gene Vincent died on the 12th October. At this moment, all rock fans reading this post are singing ... Be-Bop-A-Lula, she's my baby...

LAUREL (Laurus nobilis)

2008-09-29T13:24:00.004+02:00

Laurel (Laurus nobilis) - also known as bay - is a noble Mediterranean plant which grows in warm, coastal areas. It can be cultivated as decorative herb.

Laurel is evergreen bush or tree, its' leaves are dermoid, long and peaky at its' top. Upper side has very nice and shiny green color, and they smell very pleasant.

It is not possible to imagine fish soup or beans without laurel as a spice, but it is also used in natural medicine because it has some therapeutic characteristics.

You can prepare tea from laurel leaves and you can add in a bath which can be a real helper with rheumatic pain. It also acts very as a relief with stomach ache and digestion problems.

If you mix cut laurel leaves with alcohol, you'll get a preparation that can reduce pain caused by stringed tendons, wrenches and rheumatic. Oil from laurel leaves and berries is used in perfume industry.

Cranberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea)

2008-09-26T21:51:00.004+02:00

I really love to drink tea, and in past few days I've been drinking cranberry tea at my work - when I scratched a bit about this modest fruit, I found many fact pointing to its' curative features.

Cranberries smell like magic, and they taste a bit sour. We collect berries in August and September.

They are very rich with vitamins A, b and C and cranberries act like antiseptic and they are very useful when having problems with urinary tract (kidneys, urinary bladder. Cranberry tea is very helpful if you suffer from rheumatic or gout.

Marmalade made of cranberries is not only very tasteful, but it can act as a stimulation for appetite and can stop diarrhea. Cranberry juice anticipates urinating.

Cranberries are getting more and more popular thanks to their delicious taste and I'm very happy that it is getting more easier to find them then it was maybe 10 or 15 years ago.

Is there an easy way to quit smoking?

2008-09-18T07:45:00.003+02:00

I know this title jumps out of my “health routine” but I was “tickled” with a commercial I saw on TV few nights ago. It was about certain brand of chewing gums that will help you decrease to amount of smoked cigarettes and, eventually, help you quit smoking for good.

I don’t need to write about health hazard (every package of cigarettes is showing possible illness) and birds on the trees know the real risk of smoking (both for your health and your wallet).

I was curious and I wrote on google “quit smoking”, and google offered me 8 320 000 sites with this expression. I found out that even in these 8 million sites, first one are always dedicated to some commercial and “selling stuff to quit smoking” companies.

This is one of the biggest problems today and I’m sure that there are millions out there today trying to get rid off that nasty habit. I don’t like judging people and I don’t think that smokers are “second class” people.

When you surf the internet, or watch TV – all of these offered solutions are promised to help you quit smoking without any trouble, but what is the strongest weapon against cigarettes - Your own willpower. You can try hypnosis, or acupuncture, chewing gums, medications, all sorts of patches, books, or you name it – but if you don’t squeeze your teeth (so to say) and use your will, the result will never come.

I quit smoking four years ago. I was pregnant in that period and I decided that it isn’t right for me to poison my baby (or myself and everybody else around me), so one morning, while I was drinking coffee, I said to myself – I won’t smoke no more – and I’m still holding on.

Don’t be scared with weight gain, it all comes in place after six months or one year – the most important thing is that jack pot you won for your health.

The conclusion is very simple – there is no easy way to quit smoking, and your own willpower maybe seems to be the hardest way because you don’t comfort yourself thinking that someone else will solve your smoking problem, but at the end, this way will surely give you enough strength to quit smoking for good. The thought of you doing something completely alone can be such positive encouragement making you persistent in your intention to win over cigarettes addiction.

It’s red, but it’s worth like gold

2008-09-12T11:58:00.009+02:00

Autumn is knocking at our door, and this colorful fall specter is incomplete without bright red tomato colors.

Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum, syn. Lycopersicon lycopersicum) came to Europe from South America (it was in the middle 16th century, after Columbus discovered America). Its’ name - in Italian “Pomodoro” (which means golden apple) - describes the real value of this plant.

Tomatoes have been cultivated through history which resulted with various sorts like little cocktail tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes in various colors from red, to yellow or even pink.

Its’ nutritive and curative value is very big and it’s hard to count all the benefits coming from this vegetable (although, I found some sources with information saying it’s not sure if tomatoes are fruit or vegetable). Plant alone (leafs and stalk) are poison because of solanine, an alkaloid which acts as a natural fungicide and pesticide.

Tomato fruits are rich with vitamin C, vitamin B1, carotene, and it contains certain amounts of iron, copper and manganese. Because of lycopene, tomato has recognized antioxidant and antitumor activity, especially with cases of prostate cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer.

Tomatoes are full of alimentary fibers which act very favorably on cholesterol and sugar level, and in latest researches there are statements that these fibers help in preventing colon cancer.

Tomatoes can be prepared in various ways, and one of the best ways (and for me, never boring) is tomato salad. I spent whole summer eating colorful salads based on tomatoes (of course, mixed with other vegetables, mostly from my garden) and it makes me rather sad knowing that this tomato party would soon be over due to autumn fogs and heavy rains.

You can store tomatoes in many ways – froze it (whole fruit, without pealing), so you can easily add it while cooking (tomato skin goes down very easy when you froze it, just like when you boil it). You can cook tomatoes, and given juice is then stored in glass bottles or jars. Great way to preserve tomatoes is drying – cut ripe and healthy tomatoes in half, put them on wooden table, or plate and dry them on sun, for 4 or 5 days (be sure that flies don’t get to your tomatoes, and in the evening you must bring them inside or cover it with cloth to avoid dew). When they are dried, put them in carton boxes, or you can put them in jar, covered with olive oil.

This is an experiment - I tried to dry tomatoes, and for now, it's holding on

Really, there are plenty of possibilities, and it’s up to you in whom way you’ll consume this fantastic, but still very simple to cultivate, plant.

Tomato soup

I learned this simple recipe from my mother. We always prepare this soup for some guests or “travelers” because it acts like a real elixir. Add two tablespoons of sunflower (or olive) oil into pan, and when it heats a bit, pour one teaspoon of flour, mix it, and when it starts to get yellow, add a little bit (less then half teaspoon) of red pepper powder, mix once again and pour 1 liter of water in. Peal 1 garlic clove and one smaller onion, and add in together with about 2 tablespoons of tinned tomatoes (28-30% tomato sauce). Of course, you can add fresh minced tomatoes or fresh tomato juice, but then you don’t need add as much water. When it starts to boil, spice with some pepper in beans, salt and 1 teaspoon of sugar. You can always enrich flavor with fresh celery or parsley leafs or basil. Boil it about half an hour, and few minutes before it’s finished add a little bit of black pepper (in powder), and noodles.

It's over...until next summer

2008-09-06T21:52:00.005+02:00

As much as I'm looking forward to coming back to my garden and home, I can't lye about the fact that I'm indeed sad because summer is near its' end and my four weeks holiday is over. I spent one month on one Croatian island and I guess I'm to addicted to this place so it'll take a while for me to adapt to continent way of living. For start, here are a picture or two ...just to make it easier for next post.

I would appreciate if someone could tell what kind of flower is this - I found it beside the road (a path), and I don't where to start looking for some informations. I think it is something wild, but I only have a picture.

Holidays are calling...

2008-08-07T11:08:00.004+02:00

..and I'll be leaving blogger for future 4 weeks, so I apologize in advance for all link refferal, and entercard user if I don't answer their visits, and all others...

Here are some "every day's" happenings from my garden.

Predator waits for its' prey ...

Pelargonium L., Geraniaceae

And now, the medicine, simple salad made with carrots and beetroot - both fresh, scrubbed and spiced with a little bit of salt, pepper, olive oil and few drops of vinegar or lemon juice

Calendula officinalis

2008-08-01T14:05:00.004+02:00

It's not easy for me to think of any smart title because we are talking about one unique yet simple herb which is rich with so many therapeutic characteristics that I’m a bit scared that any title won’t be enough to describe calendula’s real worth.

Calendula (everlasting, calendular) is a herb on which we’ll run more in “old fashioned” flower gardens because it doesn’t suit modern and exotic trends, but it is unfair not to talk about calendula because it is one, indeed, therapeutic herb.

It’s not hard to recognize calendula because whole plant is overgrown with little, soft fluffs and it’s branchier towards the upper part of the plant. Both petals and leaves are therapeutic.

When you pick petals and leaves, dry them in shade. Besides its’ therapeutic and medical features, I’ve read that calendula acts as and “weather man” – if calendula flowers stay closed after 7 AM, then it’ll rain on that day. Everlasting blossoms from June until first frosts. They like sunny places with average drainage which doesn’t have to be too fertile.

Calendula is widely used in popular medicine and it has very high roll among therapeutic herbs. Tea made of calendula petals is to cure jaundice, kidney diseases, anemia, uterine diseases and it helps with urinating dysfunction. It act as diuretic so it is used as an aid for sweating and helps with constipation. It acts favorably in menopause because calendula regulates blood cast. Calendula helps with neural diseases, and in popular medicine it has been used for some cancer treatments.

Everlasting act very well as a cure for external use because calendula’s bandages and dubbings with calendula were used for treating ulcers, acne, wounds, eczema, and as a help with wound healing.

Calendula is used in culinary where grounded dust of calendula petals sustains saffron. In natural cosmetics, you can use water whit dipped calendula petals for shiny hair.

Today, the trend of cancer diseases is growing, so I’ll add here two recipes (from book about “Therapeutic herbs and natural medicine”) that were used for treating breast and uterus cancer, and skin cancer.

Skin cancer and ulcers

Two to three tablespoons of chopped calendula (petals and plant) mix with two tablespoons of beef suet or port grease. Cook it for about half hour. Drain it through sieve or double gauze. Store it in clean and dried pot or box and pressurized it. This grease helps with all kinds of ulcers, or skin cancer. Salve gauze with this grease and cover your wound. Besides that, you can prepare it like tea, in milk. Take one teaspoon of calendula with ½ liter of milk.

Breast cancer and uterus cancer

50 grams of dried calendula petals mix with 60% alcohol or 40% of grape brandy. Leave to rest for 10 days. Drain it. Take 50-60 drops on 200 grams of water and drink through the days. Each day you need to eat 200 grams of scrubbed carrot.

Sweeter life vs. bitter life

2008-07-29T14:40:00.005+02:00

Unfortunately, this is true. When we look our world today, we’ll see that on one side we have currents and trends supporting healthy food with restriction and everyday exercise (it would be an ideal situation to have the ability, time, means and good will for everyday exercise) trying to force us to change our daily “habits” and ways. Each time you open a magazine or turn on TV or computer every one is screaming at you that you must lose weight to look more attractive or similar to some movie star.

On the other hand, we are getting more and more fat – eating junk food and forgetting how to walk two blocks on foot or walk to our office by stairs if it is higher then two floors.

Depression has sneaked into our bodies making us unhappier and unwilling to make a change in our life. Media pressure is too big and strong leaving us feeling poor every time we close some fancy news paper. I don’t want to be a judge, but sometimes it is our own fault. We keep forgetting that we are all different and unique and that true happiness lies in more important things then new pair of shoes or a piece of make up.

Health (besides our family) is the most important thing in our life – we must not let ourselves be bitten by daily news and events.

I love sweets – and I’m crazy about chocolate (especially dark ones) – and every time I try to make some changes in my every day diet (which means that I try to throw away sweets and other rubbish out), I come to a point where it is unbearable for me to live through a day without constant eating and putting something in my mouth.

I was trying to find an answer to this “problem” and I found an article stating that food rich with carbohydrates (and this includes sweets) can indeed help us lose weight and feel better. Of course, we are talking about reasonable amounts of chocolate (and its’ friends) here.

The answer lies in serotonin – neurotransmitter chemical which regulates muscle functions, temperatures, appetite, feeling pain, blood pressure and breathing. When it is balanced, serotonin makes us feel more relaxed and happier which is very important if we want to have quality life.

It seems that little carbohydrate snacks before main meal can raise serotonin level (in natural way) resulting us feeling less hungry and happier. I believe there is additional information about this diet on pages dedicated to “Serotonin Power Diet” plans.

I haven’t tried any of these diets, but the thought of little sweet snacks between lunch and dinner sounds fantastic. That is just another statement supporting the main rule for healthy (and happy) life – too much of anything is not good for our health.

So, there’s no reason for us to exclude sweets from our menu – as long as we don’t exceed with sweets, because they could really make our lives bitter then bringing us more depression and pain.

Clean yourself inside to look better on the outside

2008-07-25T14:49:00.002+02:00

As much as it is important for us to maintain healthy diet followed with healthy and quality eating, there are times when we just can’t control ourselves and we treat ourselves with some sweets, cakes or “junk food”. We are not saints and life would be too boring if we’d lived it in constant calorie counting or jogging and orbitrek chase.

I, myself, am proven gourmand and I adore eating and cooking, and I really enjoy cakes, creams, all kinds of pasta specialties, etc…I must stop counting if I don’t want to get hungry again. How can we help us with this “problem“ and is this really a problem or can we fix this with periodical “body cleaning action” also known as detoxification.

Majority of people today are suffering from similar health problems – which aren’t real health problems. We feel like we haven’t got an atom of energy in our body, we are slow, our concentration is very poor, and all in general, we don’t feel ok.

With these symptoms there are always related headaches, skin problems, bad breath, depression, and bad digestion, overweight or under weight, constipation…We are not really sick, so what to do now?

Detoxification is our answer. We’ve been very busy collecting various unhealthy compounds which made for our body very difficult to act properly and do its’ duties. Our organism is too occupied with digestion of bad food and toxics and if we add some stress, hectic way of life and very little exercise, we can see the troubles we put ourselves in.

We can get out of this mess if start to clean out body regularly – there are several ways we can do this, and we have the liberty to choose the one that suits us the best. What ever you choose to do, you must start very slow.

If you choose water detoxification (detoxification that lasts 24 hours, it’s very simple and effective, you only consume water) and you are a beginner, then you’ll make your first try once a month, not every week.

You can clean your body drinking natural (home made, squeezed) juices and this process last from 1 to 3 days, depending on your body and mind state. Some people even use this method in healing serious illness like cancer.

Another way of body cleaning is “raw” eating. It offers us many benefits and it strengthens our immune system. This way can help you lose your weight because enzymes from raw food stimulate our body to efficiently alternate food into energy reducing our feeling of being hungry and consuming more food. It cleans our skin, reduces cardio vascular diseases, diabetes and in general – it really makes us feel better and “clearer”

Detox diets are very popular these days and there many different diets “on the menu” nowadays, but they all share same principals which are:

Drink as much liquid as possible

Avoid coffee, alcohol and chocolate (why chocolate?)

Eat more fruit and vegetables, and raw food

Prefer vegetarian food

Eat light food

Limit milk products

Eat organic food

Avoid refined food like white sugar, rice, pasta, potatoes…

Herbal teas are another way of detoxification which has very long and therapeutic tradition. It would be very helpful to drink more herbal teas, regarding of the fact if you are on detox or not.

Sauna is very good way to clean your body as well, because, high temperatures, which is stimulated by sauna treatment, kills all kind of bacteria, viruses and parasites.

What ever you do, do it easy, and if you have any health problems, always talk to your doctor about it. Detoxification process are not recommended for pregnant woman, breast feeding woman, old people and people with eating disorder.

Help yourself

2008-07-22T14:14:00.009+02:00

The world where we are living is getting more stressed and hectic with every new day. We are always running after something or someone, and we are constantly forgetting the real importance of proper daily diet and healthy food. We can’t expect to feel enthusiastic and dynamic if we neglect ourselves in a way of paying no attention to what we are putting in our mouth.

Fast food and “industry” processed food is winning over old fashioned “home-made” meals resulting us getting fatter and feeling too lazy to do anything else except wait for another meal. We must learn the well known fact that cure for this state of body and mind lies in increasing the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in our every day menu.

It’s easier said then done because we are used to this simplicity and availability and we all must admit that junk food in many cases tastes so “jummy”, sweet and tempting. Another problem that can occur in our trying to become healthier is the fact that we actually don’t know the real source of the food we want to use. They could be from any part of the world, genetically modified (GMO), “protected” with way too many mineral types of manure, pesticides or herbicides which can pollute our body if we consume it too much.

It’s hard to win in this situation, but from what I see today, people are getting more and more aware about the importance of healthy caterers. We can’t all have little gardens in our back yards which can offer us at least just a little bit of “homemade” goodies, so people are more and getting involved in their own private investigations for better and quality food.

And when you finally succeed in discovering your perfect source for fruit and vegetables, don’t forget to include them in your everyday menu, not just for fun, but for real, and pay attention that the amount of fresh vegetables (not cooked or processed in any other way) in your vegy meal must be at least 1/3 of daily vegy portion.

Chemical ingredients of vegetables and effects of some of their components on our health is still unknown to the scientists, but we can all say that vegetables can offer us various cures and remedies for many illness and aches.

For example, tomatoes are rich with lycopene which can decrease the risk of some cancres, and simple, everyday lettuce is full of flavonoids that can slow down the growth of cancer cells. We must not forget carrots, peaches and other “beta-carotene” rich food which protects our skin in summer time when sun beams are too strong and very hazardous.

This picture is showing cucumbers from my garden (organic, without any pesticides or similar treatment)

Some of us, who are too deep into “every day fruit and vegetables” can’t imagine starting a day without an apple for example; every meal is “spiced” with something green. Right now, it is the “water melon” and cucumbers season and I’m “torturing” myself with tones of cucumbers salads and melon deserts – so I took a little research and tried to find is there a chance that too much of that food can be dangerous – and I couldn’t find anything. Vegetable or fruit seasons usually don’t last long enough to be “harmful” so we can all continue in our green “exaggeration” coloring our plates in bowls in different, lively and vigorous colors.

Spice up your summer

2008-07-16T13:42:00.007+02:00

Summer is here bringing us a lot of happiness thanks to fresh fruits and vegetables which is more and more present on our markets and piazzas. Shelves are full of red tomatoes, green and yellow paprika, melon and watermelons. This summer rhapsody is enriched with one, very important vegetable – chili peppers. Hot chili peppers are originally from Mexico, and, thanks to Colombo (and his trips to Caribbean), they were presented to the rest of the world. There are hundreds of breads of chili peppers which have different shape, colour and intensity of exasperation.

You can use peppers as a fresh vegetables, in powder (spice – hot chili peppers) or conserved. Dried and milled peppers is the most common way we’ll find chili, and that powder can offer us a lots of minerals and vitamins such as iron, magnesium, calcium, vitamins A, C, K and other important elements (I don’t want to state exact numbers, because different sources provide different data).

Very important ingredient in chili peppers is capsaicin – substance which is “to blame” for their pique, but routine about peppers being the “on duty disinfectants” is not correct. Chili peppers are indeed healthy, and there are sources stating that capsaicin helps with various combustions and it helps discrimination of blocked nose and lungs.

Chilis can decrease cholesterol level in blood and they help in degrading of fibrin – compound which is involved in making blood clots. Using hot peppers (also as a spice) in our every day cuisine can prevent stroke and heart attack. Capsaicin reduces cholesterol oxidation which is a great help against cardio vascular diseases.

In magazine “Cancer research” it is stated that capsaicin helps in stopping growth of cancer cells in prostate and lever cancer.

Some say that exasperation can cause ulcer is not the truth – chili peppers stimulate discrimination of protective stomach juices.

Chili helps in body weight regulation because pique in peppers increases metabolic activity and oxygen usage – until 20 minutes after consummation.

Capsaicin has its’ roll in today’s cosmetics as a cream addition which tenders pain caused with neuralgias, herpes zoster or even after amputation.

Too much of everything can be bad so if you consume large amounts of chili, it can cause stomach cancer.

But for me, this is not the reason why I shouldn’t continue enjoying this “sweet” pique which is offered to us in the summertime because summer is too short, anyway…

Hidden treasure in the sea…

2008-07-11T14:15:00.004+02:00

This title could provoke your imagination and tales about pirates and their hidden shrines at the bottom of the sea, but this post is dedicated to something completely different. Our sea is the source of healthy food, but you must not suppress one of the basic characteristics in the sea – and that is the sea salt.

Today's scientists are recommending that only the coarse sea salt should be used in our every day life. Why is sea salt healthier, then regular, “kitchen” (also known as “stone salt”)? In the process of sea evaporation (in big, shallow pools) it isn’t only the basic NaCL left – together with it we have other, solid compounds that has been melted in the water.

Sea salt has, approximately, 80 minerals and elements, and now you see why it is so important for our every day diet. It is hard to count all the benefits it has for our health, but salt is necessary for healthy digestion, health of our nerve system, healthy sleep, it helps with muscle fever and some are even going that far saying that salt is very important for healthy sex life and libido.

Besides our health, sea salt has huge role in natural cosmetics giving us many therapeutic baths and peelings which in natural and solid way can help us in achieving prettier looks.

Due to the richness in minerals and other elements, sea salt baths stimulate our metabolism and abstraction of harmful substances and also helps in secretion of water in our body which helps our skin being tensed, softer and strained. Sea salt baths were famous in ancient times when it was recommended to people suffering from sciatica, rheumatic diseases and skin diseases.

In today’s time we can get many aromatized sea salt baths which have positive effect on certain type of difficulties, and there are even some recipes saying that sea salt is good in helping fight against cellulite. Any way, no one should miss out salt, but on the contrary, must include it more in every day life, and not only as food, but as a very important addition (which is very cheap and natural, also) in cosmetics.

Salt for smooth skin

Take three table spoons of coarse, sea salt and mix it with one table spoon of olive oil. The mixture you get, gently massage on your belly, hands, legs, back and butt. Rinse it with warm water and dry it with towel. At the end, you can put on your skin some cream or lotion – at least, that’s what recipe says, when I try it my self, I’ll give you “a first hand” experience.

Salt against cellulite

Melt 1 kilo of sea salt in water (in your bath), and then stay in for about 20 minutes (temperature about 38 Celsius). Repeat this procedure 3 times a week, in a period of one month. Good luck!

Little yellow Sun

2008-06-19T12:50:00.004+02:00

Our every back yard is indeed, one little, natural pharmacy which can offer us many trusted recipes for various illnesses and problems. It’s hard to count all therapeutic inhabitants in our garden, but we certainly mustn’t bypass one dandelion or milfoil, for example.

In early spring our backyards are covered with cheerful, yellow carpet made of dandelions.

Dandelion (blowball, gilt cup, lat. Taraxacum officinale) is one of the most famous herbs found in our gardens, back yards or any other green areas. Some may find it boring and annoying, but its’ curative properties is too big to just dump it in every day weeds.

You can use whole plant which is collected in early spring. Dry it on medium temperature (you can even do this in oven, on +40 degrees) or you can dry it in light shadow.

Although the whole herb is therapeutic, you must observe its’ roots as well, which, besides being used in medical purposes, can also find its’ place in today’s kitchen as an excellent add-in (young dandelion roots can be fried with eggs and it tastes like mushrooms).

Dandelion roots have positive effect while cleaning your organism – it stimulates sweating and it strengthens and refreshes your body. It is very useful with diseases like gout, rheumatic, skin diseases, ulcers, over weight, anaemia and irregular menstrual…

You can find insulin in dandelion and that’s why it is recommended to diabetics – you must take 8 to 15 hollow stalks a day and chew it. Another therapeutic feature of dandelion is blocking the appearance of stone gall.

Dandelion stimulates appetite so that’s another reason to include it in your every day diet.

Dandelion Syrup:

Ingredients: 500 dandelion flowers

3 litre of cold water

4 lemons

4 oranges

2 kilos of sugar (about 4 pounds)

Cover dandelion flowers with water, add thinly sliced lemons and oranges and leave it to rest for 24 hours. Filtrate (best is to use very thick gauze) it in a bowl where you will make your syrup, and add 2 kilos of sugar. When it starts to boil, leave it for hour and a half to cook, and after that turn down the fire and pour boiling syrup into clean and dry jars, and close them right away.

This syrup is excellent cure for all kinds of sore throats, colds and other mouth problems. You can consume it like every other syrup – with little spoon.

My piece of heaven

2008-06-12T21:25:00.006+02:00

Picture is worth thousand words, so instead of writing about nature, ecology and organic gardening, I'll share some photos of my garden where everything is done in natural way - with organic manure and without pesticides and similar additions...so, I hope you'll enjoy the view

Or if you want to take a piece of this garden to your kitchen, this can happen, too...

all I can say - boun appetite

His Highness - Vitamin C

2008-06-05T14:24:00.005+02:00

Few months ago I wrote a post about vitamin C, but I published it on different provider - never mind that - fact about vitamin C aren't changed and we still must take him in our every day life.

What is vitamin C, where do we find it mostly and why do we need it in our everyday life – that is the story we heard a thousand times and we remember it every time when we enter a drug store to get some new vitamin preparation like instant drink or vitamin tablets. In latest researches it is stated that this artificial preparations are indeed harmful, but I don’t want to get in this subject since I don’t see myself being competent enough for that matter, but it could be useful to highlight it, again, how really vitamin C is good for our well being and where can we find it if we consummate fresh food.

Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is one of the most important essential nutrients and it’s exclusively found in fresh fruit and vegetables. It’s very unstable, so when you cook or leave your food uncovered, vitamin C is easily lost. It’s irreplaceable in every day living because it helps producing of collagen (it is that thing that merges our body cells), vitamin C protects essential fatty acids from oxidation (so it prevails cardio-vascular diseases), it helps in curing and protecting from scurvy (if you take sufficient daily value) , and it protects from anemia. Everyday consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables which contains large amounts of vitamin C can really strengthen your immune system. Redundancies of that vitamin are mostly not harmful because everything your body doesn’t absorb gets out while urinating.

Recommended daily allowances may vary – from around 60 mg for grown non-smokers to at least 100 mg for smokers (smoking decreases absorption of vitamin C). Children should take smaller amounts of vitamin C, from 35 mg – 45 mg, depending how old is your child.

Let’s enter our kitchen and we’ll try to find several caterers which include bigger amounts of vitamin C – while researching various literature, magazines and Internet I found imbalance in data regarding the exact amount of vitamin C in certain food, so I’ll write only several sorts of fresh and vegetables. Ditto amounts are vitamin C (mg)/100 g fruit/vegetable

* Black currant around 180 mg	* Chili pepper around 240 mg
* Kiwi around 95 mg	* Fresh parsley around 190 mg
* Fresh lemon around 70 mg	* Fresh horse-radish around 100 mg
* Strawberry around 60 mg	* cauliflower around 80 mg
* Orange around 60 mg	* fresh pepper around 80 mg
* Grape fruit around 45 mg	* cabbage around 50 mg

I hope this short “Vitamin C” abstract would make easier every day balance between quality nutrition, hasty way of life and wish for healthier body and mind.

Green is „IN“

2008-05-30T12:32:00.004+02:00

It has been rather hot lately, and I’m completely in tears looking at my mangold “frying” in the heat of the sun. When temperatures are high, chard usually fades and it is very hard for her to cope with hot and dry weather.

This modest Mediterranean princess (silverbeet, mangel, chard lat. - Beta vulgaris var cicla) is two-year leafy plant which was mostly cultivated in coastal areas; luckily she found her place on “continental” plates as well. There are two basic types of chard – first one has big, green and “unkempt” leaves on rather small white stalk, and the other has a bit smaller leaves on bigger and whiter stalk.

Like all green leafy vegetables, chard is also low calorie plant (100 grams of boiled chard has about 20 cal), she is rich with magnesium, iron and vitamins A and C. Importance of green leafy vegetables is huge and we should eat it at least three times a week.

Let’s just add little detail concerning cooking process of all green vegetables (including mangold) – it is important to cook it in big, deep bowl and always put in boiling water – sooner it gets done, it’ll stay more “greener”. Greenness is accomplished with the alkaline amount of the water in which you prepare those vegetables, so, if the water is alkaline, mangold stays green, if the water is more acid, green colour is lost. To preserve green colour, add a little bit of soda.

And now – one recipe from our kitchen table (which I managed to remember and write down)

Strudel with mangold and carrots

Ingredients:

About ½ kg of mangold (about 1 pound)
3 medium carrots
1 big onion or two leeks
Boiling cream
Salt, pepper, chilli peppers
2 decilitres of mineral water
Pastry for strudel
Oil

Boil chard. Chop onions finely and stew it until it becomes “vitreous”, then add scrubbed carrots, salt and peppers (and don’t be stingy with them). Drain mangold and cut it rough, mix it with onions and carrots. Stew it for a while, add a little bit of chilli peppers (if you want) and a little bit of cooking cream (or sour cream – which you prefer).

Take a little bowl and mix two eggs with cooking cream (add about 1 decilitre)

Separate strudels peels and put the first one on the kitchen cloth, smear it with egg/cream mixture and add mangel and carrots. Put the second peel on the first one and repeat the procedure (you can “build” 3 or 4 peels). Rolled strudel peels put in a pan and cut each one of them vertically (like you are cutting baked strudel). Mix mineral water and 1 tablespoon of oil with the rest of the egg/cooking cream mixture and pour it over the strudel (if you don’t have any left, prepare new mixture with egg, a little bit of cream and mineral water). Leave it to absorb the liquid for a while and then put it in an oven to bake for 40 – 50 minutes, on 200 degrees.

You can add a little bit of scrubbed cheese in the strudel (warm filling seems more “creamy”) or on the strudel (it looks more attractive).

Bon appétit!

Too good to be true

2008-05-28T14:14:00.004+02:00

Although we are bombed with tones of “fancy and modern” groceries (and I believe that some of them are healthy indeed), often we forget that true value lies in simple things. It wouldn’t be that bad if sometimes we could go back to our roots and try to have some fun with one simple and “very dull” cabbage.

Cabbage (sauerkraut, lat. Brassica oleracea) is very old and ancient plant whose usage goes back to prehistory time to areas on European coast, and it is known that old Slavs discovered the way how to prepare sauerkraut and this way is used in today’s time.

Nutritive value of cabbage is huge and it is hard for me to count all the beneficial effects that cabbage can offer us, but even little children know that the best cure in the world for the worst hangover is souse (liquid which appears in process of making sauerkraut).

There are many brands of cabbage and the most famous and the most outspreaded are white cabbage and red cabbage, but we won’t make a mistake if we chose any cabbage at all, because both brands are rich with vitamin C (white cabbage from 30 – 60 mg/100g, red cabbage from 42-70 mg/100g). Calcium/phosphor ratio in cabbage gives the best efficiency of calcium, so that’s also one of the reasons why we should eat more cabbage.

I’m not nutritionist so I won’t make more analyses, I’d rather give few lines about issues are more appropriate (and important) to ordinary people, and these are curative properties of cabbage and its’ usage in public medicine.

Headache – take few leafs of fresh, white cabbage and put it in a warm oven (not hot) so it softens a bit. Put those warm and soft leafs on your forehead. Repeat it three times a day.

Gastric ulcer and ulcer – freshly squeezed white cabbage juice cures all kind of ulcers and colitis. Cure lasts for three or four weeks, and every day you drink about 0,5 to 1 liter of cabbage juice (divided through the day).

Fresh cabbage found its’ purpose even in natural cosmetics – you can make facial mask of finely scrubbed white cabbage and put it on your face for 20-30 minutes (it is good for all facial scars).

Today, it is very hard to imagine living through the winter without sauerkraut (pickled cabbage) and it is recommended to have it on your menu because of it is rich with vitamin C. People who suffer from stomach problems, constipation, scurvy and anemia must eat sauerkraut mixed with chopped onions and olive oil.

Cabbage acts antiseptic and if you prepare it like a tea or soup, it can be used as a cure for cough or flu.

Roman empress arugula

2008-05-16T14:38:00.003+02:00

Every one who follows latest “cooking” trends knows who aragula (rocket, lat. Eruca Sativa) is. This simple and almost wild herb which used to be privilege of Mediterranean and coastal areas dates from the period of Roman Empire. There many familiar brands of aragula, but basic division is to cultivated (Eruca Sativa, Rucola Coltivata) and wild (Diplotaxis tenuifolia, Rucola Selvatica). Breeding of that natural aphrodisiac is very easy no matter the brand – aragula can survive and grow on almost any type of soil as long as you give her enough water. If you put rocket directly to the sun and don’t give her enough water, very soon she’ll give you very aromatic, almost bitter and tough product,

As I mentioned earlier, from ancient times people credit her for aphrodisiac effects, and it was used as one of the most important elements in making cures against coughing and scurvy.

Aragula’s nutritive value is huge – except being rich with vitamins C, A, K she is also great source for minerals like Calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium and phosphor. Beta-carotene from aragula has anti oxidant effect and that’s another way to keep our body healthy.

Cooking can offer various ways of preparation – rocket can be cooked as a meal on its’ own, she can be served as side dish or used as a spice. You can prepare aragula as spinach or marigold – with olive oil, garlic and potatoes – it’s all up to your free will.

But I have great advice (I tried it yesterday and our lunch was jack pot) – it is known that aragula goes very well with tomatoes, so I add a bit of aragula (about one little bouquet) to satarash (meal made of onions, tomatoes and paprika) and the taste was fantastic. Typical sourness of tomato based meals is completely lost after adding aragula resulting one very specific and delicate aroma and it tastes great!

Monkey business

2008-05-14T14:35:00.003+02:00

I’ve been sailing across virtual sea of internet to find few more facts about well known fruit bananas. This southern fruit has long history and it dates from antic ages. Bananas came from Malaysia some 4000 years ago, and after that sailors and merchants spread it around the world.

Nutritive value of bananas is huge. From my own experience I can say that after having one simple meal made of two bananas I feel full of energy and élan. My everyday duties are done without too much effort and I certainly don’t have any problems with my concentration.

Banana is rich with potassium, manganese, vitamins B complex and many other useful elements. It’s very good for people with high blood pressure because banana helps lower it. Like many similar caterers, banana acts as antioxidant and it is even used in natural cosmetics – vitamins from banana renew collagen which helps fighting against wrinkles. Banana calms down your nerves, acts as anti depressive, helps with constipation, heartburn and anaemia.

Food rich with dietetic fibres, magnesium and potassium decrease the risk of heart attack so that’s another reason for even more often adding bananas to your everyday menu.

Here’s simple recipe for unusual bread with bananas:

Ingredients:

4 bananas (about 600 grams)

70 grams of butter

80 grams of sugar

1 egg

1 package of vanilla sugar (about 10g)

½ package of backing powder (about 7g)

Pinch of salt

220 grams of flour

Squash bananas and mix them with butter. Add sugar, vanilla sugar and scramble egg, backing powder, salt and flour – at the end. Bake it about an hour at 170 C degrees.

Vitamin E today – healthier old age tomorrow

2008-05-08T13:32:00.005+02:00

Every day, we are bombed with information about vitamin E and its’ importance for preserving our health. What is vitamin E and why is he so important for our organism?

Vitamin E is mutual name for group of eight related tocopherols (tocopherol – organic compound made of various methylated phenols) which are fat-solvable. In our organism tocopherols act as an antioxidant, and antioxidants reduce free radicals. I’ll try to explain term “free radicals” as simple as possible – radicals are parcels (ions, molecules,…) in our body which have one or more impaired electrons (what is the real meaning of that – don’t ask me J) they don’t last long and they are very unstable. They are easily attached with all structures around them which mean they can cause damage of cell membranes and various DNA mutations. In long term, those damages cause many diseases among which are cancer, arthrosclerosis and similar illness. Free radicals occur in many different ways - from every day cell activities to all kinds of outer sources like pollution, too much of UV rays, stress, physical labours…

This short (and I hope understandable) explanation gave us conclusion about the real relevance of vitamin E in our life and why is it so important for us to take it in huge amounts. Till now it isn’t stated any harmful act of too much of vitamin E (although I have found an article saying that too much of vitamin E for too long can cause sight problems) and recommended daily amount varies – from 8 mg do 15 mg (it depends of the information source).

Anyhow – the best solution is to increase consummation of food rich with vitamin E like vegetable oil (sunflower oil has 55.8mg/100 g or olive oil 12mg/100 g – source Wikipedia ), wheat germs, green leafy vegetables (spinach, various types of lettuce…), all kinds of nuts, fish and eggs.

Diversity in our every day diet enhanced with food rich with vitamin E can only benefit our health because in time our immune system gets stronger causing us feeling better and healthier. Let me give you my personal example – I haven’t been paying any attention to the amount of vitamin E I take, but for almost nine years I haven’t been eating red meat and I based my cooking on fish, olive oil and green leaf vegetables and now I finally found reasonable explanation why I feel better today, with 32 years, then 10 or 15 years ago, when I felt like I was an old woman.

Healing flame

2008-05-06T11:27:00.006+02:00

A nettle (urtica dioica) is very popular plant which can be found in every back yard. We’ve spent hours and hours trying to get rid off her, and we weren’t aware of her true value and usefulness. It isn’t matter if it is about organic agriculture, every day kitchen or popular medicine (because of its’ therapeutic characteristics).

There are no special rules for collecting nettles – you can pick whole plant – from early spring till late autumn. If you want to use roots, you can gather them in early spring, or in fall; leaves are collected in early spring (when nettle is still young) and seeds are picked up in August and September. Dry it in shade.

Nettle has many therapeutic features – it is very rich with iron so it is recommended to anaemic people because it helps regenerating blood. People who are recovering, parturient women and week children should use nettles because of its invigorating characteristics. It’s hard to list all the difficulties nettles can help and ease, but I’ll try to count just few of them.

Seeds and leaves are used against diarrhoea. Gout, all kind of kidney diseases, hepatitis and all sorts of haemorrhage are healed with nettles. Nettles are used for helping intestine’s ruptures and due to the fact nettle helps cell regeneration it is recommended for those who suffer from exhausted gristle.

Nettle calms down nerves, it is great for respiratory system; she disinfects our mouth cavity and it is known that nettle helps with fighting against dandruff.

Nettle in the kitchen can offer us many tasty and healthy dishes and you can combine it with mangel, spinach, potatoes and similar caterers. It isn’t matter if you were to prepare cream soup or dumplings just try to include nettles in your kitchen as much as it is possible.

Organic agriculture is getting more and more space and it has become serious branch of today’s agriculture. All amateur gardeners (including myself) use nettle preparations as good and effective manure and as an aid in fighting all kind of aphides.

So, instead of trying to destroy nettles, use all the benefits she can give you.

Mangel and nettles

Ingredients:
(for 6 persons)
600 grams of mangel
400 grams of nettles
250 grams of potatoes
3 garlic cloves
salt
pepper
olive oil

Description:
Boil cleaned mangel, nettles and potatoes in salted water. Rinse it and spat it, add garlic and spice it with salt, pepper and olive oil. Mix it and serve warm.

4 times 10 = 40 healthy habits

2008-04-03T08:19:00.009+02:00

This simple post is showing 4 caterers which are almost always available in our super markets or grocers, and if we join these four caterers with at least 10 basic characteristics or advices, we’ll get 40 more reasons to use them more often.

Onion/Stone leek

Onion’s strong smell and curative properties are determined with the amount of sulphur in it.
Onion increases appetite and helps food digestion.
Bigger amounts of onion can reduce glucose level in our blood.
Onion is rich with chrome and chrome can help in decreasing fast raising of sugar level in blood.
If we eat onion regularly, we could reduce our blood pressure and cholesterol level, and with that the risk of cardio vascular diseases is smaller.
We can cut down the risk of colon cancer if we include onions in our diet at least three times a week.
Red onion juice mixed with honey helps as a nerve tranquilizer, hoarseness and it soothes coughing.
Stomach problems and flatulence can be eased if we eat roasted onion or drink juice of minced onion (which can bi mixed with equal part of brandy). Drink 2 or 3 little glasses a day.
Eczema, dandruff or hair falling can bi cured with fresh squeezed onion juice.
To get rid off onion smell from your mouth, simply chew few leaves of parsley.

Radish (black radish, little radish)

Black radish helps with children’s bronchitis – cut the “top” of radish, hole its’ contents (so walls of radish are between 1 – 1.5 cm thick) and fill it up with honey. After 4 – 5 hours you get syrup. Serve 3 tea spoons a day.
Amount of calcium /phosphor ratio gives you the best possible utilization of calcium.
Little radish is known to be an aperitif because it stimulates appetite.
People with constipation should eat radishes because they benefit our digestion system.
Radishes stimulate urine discrimination.
It stimulates gall extraction at people who suffer of biliary disorders.
People who have problems with stomach mucosa, intestines, ulcers and kidney patients should avoid radishes.
Radish leaves are often thrown away although it can be used for preparation of tasty side dishes, salads or soups.
Japanese kitchen is inconceivable without radishes – it is believed that helps burning down fat and cellulite.
If you want real vitamin bomb for awaking make a radish and apple salad – chop radishes; add coarse scrubbed sour apples, fine scrubbed pickled cucumbers and one lemon juice.

Strawberries

The amount of vitamin C is between 25-100 mg/100 grams (it depends of sort), and that means it can satisfy our daily Vitamin C needs.
Vitamin C is an antioxidant and its’ act decreases the possibility of cancer diseases.
Strawberries are great resource of folates (folic acid from B vitamins).
Strawberries help us fight viruses of respiratory system.
If you are allergic to garden strawberries, nutritionists recommend consuming of wild (forest) strawberries.
For better thyroid it is recommended to eat strawberries.
Roots of forest strawberry are used for cleaning tartar.
Wild (forest) strawberry outgrowths stop bleeding and diarrhoea.
Wild strawberry baths help at skin diseases.
One of the tastiest aphrodisiacs is strawberries with whipped cream.

Chocolate

Chocolate tenders pain caused with menstruation.
They say chocolate is an aphrodisiac and even famous Casanova used chocolate in his seducing “actions”.
Teobromin (ingredient in chocolate) helps in stopping chronicle coughing (Imperial College – London).
Always choose chocolate with bigger amount of cocoa and with less sugar.
Phenylethylamin (ingredient in chocolate) has stimulating effect, so chocolate helps us increase our concentration and wakes us up.
One table of chocolate (100 grams) has 156 mg calcium, 207 mg phosphor and 8,4 grams of proteins.
You should avoid chocolate before going to bed because it could cause insomnia.
The latest researches are showing that dark chocolate (as well as cocoa) increase producing of “good” cholesterol (HDL) for about 10 %, and with that the risk of settling down of “bad” cholesterol on vein walls is lesser.
If you eat too much of chocolate you’ll get contra effects like melancholy and irritability.
Polifenol acid in chocolate act as an antioxidant – another reason why you should not avoid chocolate.

Potatoes – „in“or „out“ ?!

2008-03-17T21:51:00.002+01:00

Potato is widely known caterer and we couldn’t imagine our every day meal without it. Potato came from South America (Peru) over 400 years ago. We dedicate most of our life to healthier diet and right food selection, so most of people consider potato to be a total “kitchen out”. Just to think about fried potatoes can result in pandemic scandal in world of healthy diet although majority of us have secret dreams about big and tasty portion of French fries covered with some mayonnaise or pickled cucumbers sauce :-).

Well, things aren’t that bad – potatoes have many good features, they nourished many poor families in the past and I don’t see reason to avoid them.

Since they have 2.5 times less starch then bread, potatoes are recommended in diabetic diet. They are rich with A, B, C and F vitamins. Best way to keep those vitamins is to cook potatoes in their peel. Potatoes are ideal for dietary nutrition and for digestion problems (both children and grownups) – it’s simple; cut potatoes in bigger peaces and cook together with carrots, when it is finish mesh it and add a little bit of salt in it.

In public medicine there are many recognized features of potatoes – it is used for eliminating headaches; put sliced row potato on your forehead. Scrubbed and row potato can cure wounds, swelling, ulcers, contusions, muscle abscess, rheumatic pain and arthritis. Scrubbed and cold potatoes can help with burns (especially sun burns – it is very effective in that matter).

Row potato juice can relief abscess of stomach epithelia and stomach ulcer – scrub one or two potatoes, squeeze juice, dilute it with warm water and drink it on an empty stomach.

The most important thing concerning potatoes is the way you store them. It mustn’t be left on direct sun light because it gets green and that can cause appearance of “solanin” (alkaloid – natural pesticide – poison for people) which is bad for your sight and digestion.

You don’t need to avoid potatoes, just use what it gives you – even if it means portion of Pommes Frites every now and then.

Catch some luck with fig tree

2008-03-08T22:11:00.006+01:00

Fig tree (L. Ficus carica) is appreciated southern fruit. It symbolizes life, peace, prosperity and richness. According to the old Roman belief Romul and Rem were born under the fig tree, and Adam and Eve made their first cloths of fig leaves. In some countries fresh and immature fig juice is used for preparing special cheese for young breastfeeding mothers without milk. Fig leaf represents lust and sexuality and, my dear ladies, if you want to put a spell on your lover, you can try it with fig tree.

We saw that fig has many recognized features, but one of its’ most important characterises is benefit for health in any way – you can use it if you have problems with constipation or toothache, coughing, sore throat…there are even information that fig can cure some types of tumours. Some people believe that fig tree brings good luck and protects gamblers.

I could continue numbering fig’s “good and lively” attributes, but I think I must focus on health issue. I’ll start with proven, everyday story from my life – my husband had problem with kidney stones ever since he was in high school. He was in hospital twice because of that. Unfortunately, he was caught in the middle of the war in Bosnia when he got kidney attack and he couldn’t go to a hospital or doctor. He came across a woman who told to use fig tree leaves to heal. Recipe is very simple – you take one leaf and boil it in one litre of water for minute or two, drink that tea through the day and repeat this procedure for 4 or 5 days. It saved many people from going to a hospital and operation. He continued drinking that tea every year or two, just as a precaution.

I must add that fig tree is rich with calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamin B6 and potassium. Both fresh and dried figs contain lots of pectin (melting fibre) which can help you reduce your cholesterol. Magnesium is very strong in our everyday fight against stress (and we all know that today’s No. 1 enemy is stress) so eating figs will help us reduce depression, anxiety and even PMS. Fig is great fuel for our brain because it has almost 60 % of natural sugar (fructose), and fresh figs are almost 80 % of water…I guess that’s enough reason for me to take one fig (dried) right this moment. Cheers…and to spoil this story just a little bit – that white powder covering dried figs isn’t sugar, it is some kind of fungus that can cause headaches and stomach ache, so if you want to eat them, you must wash them in hot water first.

Cinnamon and honey – jackpot for your health

2008-03-01T21:53:00.003+01:00

Many studies, books and articles are saying that combination of honey and cinnamon can cure almost all diseases - and even without any consequences. Did you know that if you take two table spoons of honey before going to bed can help you lose weight, and if you mix three tea spoons of cinnamon with two table spoons of honey will decrease cholesterol for 10 % in two hours.

Scientists today have discovered that honey contains large amounts of various vitamins and iron, so to if you want to prevent flues and virus infections, everyday use of honey and cinnamon will surely help you. Honey-cinnamon layer with bread drastically decreases chances of hearth-attack. We are all faced with too much work and we are always feeling tired - take one lemon and squeeze it in 1 deciliter water and mix in three spoons of honey – instant tire remover. If you are looking for a stimulator and vitality, drink a glass of water with ½ spoon of honey and a little bit of cinnamon.

Even bugs’ bites or pimples can be cured with this combination. Make a cream of three table spoons of honey and one tea spoon of cinnamon, salve it on your blisters before going to bed, and when you wake up, wash it with warm water – this will destroy pimples in its’ roots and even prevent future infections.

Honey-cinnamon combination can cure many stomach-ache problems, like tumidity, bad breath and even stomach ulcer. It has been proven (scientifically) that treating with honey and cinnamon can cure some types of cancer.

I heard that mixture of one little spoon of cinnamon and yoghurt (regular glass) can drastically reduce your weight – I tried to drink that few times, and I noticed that really cuts back your appetite (I never lasted more then three or four days because of one and only reason – I forget to drink it – I guess the only “health disorder” honey-cinnamon can’t fix is my forgetfulness ☺).

Spring is knocking...are you tired?

2008-02-25T11:58:00.004+01:00

I can hear little birds singing, Sun is high up in the sky, and you can really feel that our nature is waking up. We are tired of winter and its' greyness and a thought about leaving our winter coats, scarfs and hats in the wardrobe makes us even more cheerful and lively.
There's just one little thing you should not forget, although it's not a big deal - but with this big spring ecstasy you can also get visit from "spring tiredness". It happened - not once, that after a day of running around outside the house you find yourself feeling a bit dizzy and without wish for doing something, anything, moving, or even breathing and you start behaving like you'll get a flu. There's not special recipe that could help us cure this "illness" except preparing ourselves with consuming larger amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables, watching that we do not eat junk food and try to spend not too much time on the sun at first, and the spring will do the rest. In no time we'll be gardening, jogging, mountain climbing without any fear of being tired and "unwilling"...

Money „politics“ and Valentine

2008-02-14T10:48:00.004+01:00

Today is Valentine’s Day. We are bombed with commercials and ads about what to buy for your sweetheart to show her/him how much you care. Do we know who will make a profit of our unlimited “spending sports”? When I look the World around me I don’t see many reasons to be optimistic. In this time of fluctuations it is hard for me to relax and think that everything will come to its’ place when I pull through my credit card while buying some meaningless gift for my darling just because someone said it is fashionable. We are faced with more serious issues today and we must try to control ourselves in consumers’ madness. Every one is expecting from us to spend certain amounts of money today, but no one is thinking what will happen tomorrow. We must not forget the fact that we are still left with our credits, mortgages, daily expenses and so on - I could continue this list until next Valentine. Let’s focus widely and try to control our “shopping needs”, this could make better future for us, and not for those who are taking the profit of it.

Honey, honey...

2008-02-06T22:10:00.000+01:00

What is honey?

We all think that honey is sweet and tasty food, but we are still not sure what is its’ structure. If we are looking for competent explanation, we would say that honey is sweet, high density, viscous product which was made of nectar flowers by honey bees.

Honey brands

Brands and quality, and its’ health value depends on collected flowers, state of bees, time of the year when it was collected, etc. The most famous brands of honey are:

*Acacia honey – light color and delicate taste. Good for relieve

* Lime-tree honey – light color, also good for relieve. It has antiseptic effects and it is recommended to people who have respiratory problems, but you must know it is not advisable to give to persons who suffer of cardiovascular diseases.

*Chestnut honey – it is collected from June ‘til August, it’s brown and tastes light bitter. People who suffer from bad blood circulation or have problems with lever should consume chestnut honey.

*Milfoil honey – end of the summer and beginning of autumn is the best time to collect milfoil honey. It’s mostly light color, and it’s good when people have problems with infections with their air passages.

*Sage honey – it has very strong antiseptic effects and it’s recommended as aid for cough up.

*Dandelion honey – it’s collected in springtime, very intensive yellow color. It’s good for lever, and also as diuretic and laxative. It crystallizes very soon.

*Meadow honey – it is made of various flowers and it’s very mild so old people, people with low blood pressure and children can use it.

These are just some categories and brands of honey. We must know that honey is also affected with the procedure of finalization.

Unfortunately, we eat very small amounts of honey today since it is known that honey is one of the most digestive and the most useful groceries. Although it’s rich with sugar, honey contains simple carbohydrates - glucoses and fructose, both very important and very useful for making energy. Honey is different form consume sugar because it hasn’t only calories, but it’s full of nutritive and therapeutic compounds and because of these substances, honey is very appreciated as a medicinal food. Here some, mostly approved, medicinal characteristics:

Improves our metabolic system
Stimulates both physical and mental activity
Dark brands help with anemia
It improves resistance of our organism
Acts antiseptic and because of that it’s good for external use (like wounds and burns)
It helps absorption certain substances in our body (like medicaments or minerals)
Honey acts as a detoxification means for our whole organism
It has sedative characteristics

Honey has been recognized as a medicine that our ancestors used to heal and to get better. Here are some basic preparations that can be used with respiratory problems

Tea spoon of honey melted in warm milk or tea (temperature must be around 45 C, on higher temperatures honey loses its’ therapeutic action) helps with swallow throat, relieves pain and helps with expectorate.
¼ tea spoon of paper mixed with 1 table spoon of honey uncorks air passages, and even acts as a disinfect aid.
Little bit of nutmeg mixed with honey helps with diarrhea.

Let's bake bread!

2008-02-01T13:16:00.000+01:00

It's not hard as it seems. You might get a bit "messy" but the pleasure of baking your own bread will surely win over the fact that you covered yourself with flour. Let's go

We must prepare yeast - I usually take fresh yeast and mix it with warm water (around 35 - 40 C) and 1 table spoon of sugar (sugar helps your ferment to "grow up") and then just cover it with little saucer, and after 10-15 minutes it's ready for use. Look at the picture under these lines :-).

fig. 1 - yeast package

fig. 2 - yeast in a little bowl

Next step is preparing flour. We can use 3 cups of normal, bread flour (half white) and 1 cup of corn flour - but you have unlimited possibilities. Mix flour with 2 table spoons of salt, as it is shown on figure 3. It is import that you always use "room temperature" flour. If you keep it somewhere cold, you must give it some time to warm. Add grown yeast to flour and stir gentle, add two table spoons of sunflower oil ( and if you want specific taste, you go with olive oil too) and keep stirring, at the end, put in warm water, just to have soft and well connected pastry and then take it out of the bowl on a "floured" surface (figures 4. and 5.)

I 'm happy to say that now it is time to dig in and make a mess around, and in, your kitchen :-). Knead the pastry firmly, adding flour so it doesn't glue on the surface. You must come with the material without any knobs. It must be prose and smooth. Return it to the bowl, cover with kitchen cloth, and leave it rest for an hour (approximately). It must grown ones its' size. I think you'll be able to see the difference on pictures 6. and 7.

fig. 6 - pastry before rest

fig. 7 - pastry after resting an hour

Knead it once again and put the bread in appropriate bakery shape. It should be ready for baking after maybe half an hour of resting (it's growing again :-)) - figures 8. and 9.

fig. 8 - resting bread

fig 9. - bread before baking

Before you put it in an oven smear the bread with milk, it'll help your bread achieve nice, roasted color. Last pictures are showing how it should look after around 50 minutes in the oven, on 200 C. I hope it will turn out even better then this one posted :-).

Eat and lose weight

2008-01-29T23:30:00.001+01:00

It may sound a bit unrealistic, although many of you had been already informed about the fact that right combination of caterers can indeed help us lose weight. As our plate is more colorful, it’s bigger possibility that our pounds will melt down. The best plate patchwork is made by fresh fruit and vegetables, and they ought to be represented in as larger amount as possible in our every day diet. I don’t want to speculate that you need 3 or 5 portions a day. Each and every one of us has specific needs and it would be wrong if any one should demand changing your habits over night.

Let me get back to the “fruit subject” and try to present you its’ true value and benefit. We all know that fruit represents total noun, product or seeds of certain, mostly perennial, and it’s consists of water, minerals, vitamins, fibers and sugar. Fruit is easy to digest and it gives us our necessary energy without damaging our body figure. The thing of what we are not so conscious about is our cognition of the fact that introducing fresh fruit in our every day menu doesn’t go as we planned to. On our first day (here, I’m referring on all of ours diet plans and New Year’s decisions and resolutions) we are overwhelmed and full of panache and we are exterminating apples, bananas and everything else that starts with the letter “F”. The second day we so self confident so we treat ourselves with that piece of left Sunday cake (because we are in control here :-)), and when we reach the third day, we are so depressed because we feel dizziness of our “low sugar level” , and to much pears kept us half of a day at our toilet. So how can we move on?!

It’s not easy (I know because I tried it), but it is possible – although our struggle for nice body figure and healthy body is a fight that last whole our lives. You can’t eat healthy for five months and then get back to old (and bad) eating habits. Back to the fruits – you must try it very slow; the most important thing is to start your day with a fruit meal. To make simple – the moment you open your eyes, apple in the mouth! That is the first step. You must be determined! Of course, that apple can be replaced with a pear or an orange. I, for example, can’t imagine beginning of a day without my apple – it isn’t matter if I wake up at 4 AM or 9 AM. Trust me, results will come. Just try to imagine how your organism feels in the morning when you treat it with an apple – apple, full of water (around 85 grams of water in 100 grams of apple), full of vitamins (40 milligrams of vitamin C plus A, E, B1, B2, B6 and beta-carotene), minerals (from 100 mg do 180 mg of kalium) and diet fibers. Digestion is functioning much better (and that make You feel better), there’s no weakness, and you feel light as a feather. Now, you may treat yourself with a nice cup of coffee or tea. We must move to breakfast (without candies and “fast food”) – I’m sorry to say, but most of us, full-time employed, usually skips breakfast, so it’s all up to some “quick bite” and then we are waiting for lunch to be stuffed to the top. We must not skip the breakfast, and that breakfast ought to be made of fruits. I know it’s not satiating and tasty like nice, chocolate covered pancakes or pizza, but its’ nutritive value is immeasurable. It’s harder at the beginning, but we must comfort ourselves in that tasty lunch mentioned earlier. Make it easy for yourself and start with one simple fruit salad. Plain apple, one banana and one orange can really make a miracle breakfast if you mix them with a little bit of lemon juice, 1 spoon of honey (and honey is a whole new story), add a few raisins, walnuts or almonds, and boun appetite. You are looking at one, really healthy, tasty and nourishing meal.

Monday evening

2008-01-28T21:37:00.002+01:00

First day at work went without any unpredictable stress and I spent some time in searching freelance writing jobs (and everything what is connected with writing, blogging, making money on-line,...) This looks very abstract, I would like someone to explain me how it is to earn real dollars, euros or Japan yens on the Internet. I wrote few articles, but it all seems to be in air. I guess I don't want to bang my head with online jobs and all the desirable and "you mustn't miss the opportunity" jobs. I do plan to discover what is behind that - if time and circumstances will let me do it, and meanwhile, I'll skip to something more interesting. Many people are writing and blogging about healthy way of living, improving you eating habits, therapeutic herbs, friendly environment devices and I don't see any reason why I shouldn't join them.

Writing, writing, writing...

2008-01-27T21:51:00.001+01:00

I guess I want to write. You can write about anything from cooking to raising kids or working - our life is the script and inspiration for writing and - thanks to the Internet - blogging. I don't know if many of you would ever even read these lines, but the most important thing is to know that you told something to the world, and maybe someone will laugh or someone will find interesting stuff here, but this can't happen over night.
Ever since I was a kid reading and writing were my passions. Like many of you, I had my share of writing poems (especially after being broken hearted), reading new age and old age literature, trying to keep up with the world, stay feet, think positive, be open minded and I don't know what else to try to be "in". Sometimes it is easier to be "in" then to be yourself, but being yourself is what really counts in life. As you can see from my profile, I'm Sandra, 31, from Croatia, and the only reason why I'm writing this blog in English is that it'll be more understandable to world. Well, time runs like crazy, and it's over for tonight. I hope I'll get the habit of blogging very soon with more interesting articles and abstracts.

Good night to you all

How to start my own blog!?

2008-01-27T21:22:00.002+01:00

Thousands and thousands people own a blog, and I really don't know what to do first. It's great to have an opportunity to express your thoughts on world wide web, and I must that my brain is blocked at the moment, I just hope that "potential writing material" will come very soon :-)